The study I will be investigating is that of "Perceptual set".
Introduction The study I will be investigating is that of "Perceptual set". Perceptual set is a tendency for our perception of anything to be influence by both internal and external environment. The internal environment, for example, is when you may be very hungry and everything you see is perceived as being food, this will continue until the desire of consumption has been fulfilled. The external environment is somewhat similar, whereas you have just bought a certain type of car and now everywhere you turn you see the same car you just bought, although you may not have noticed it before. Throughout I will be using the study of visual perception i.e. "The Leeper Ambiguous Lady" study. I will use participants of both young and old age groups and let them observe the stimulus, I will then ask them if they saw the young face or the old face, as both faces cannot be seen at the same time, from there I will record my findings into a contingency table and use the chi-squared formula to find expected values. Contingency Table Perpetual set study using the Leeper Lady stimulus Young Face Old Face Marginal Totals Young People 0=32 E=26.09 2 0=1 E=6.9 33 Older People 3 0=33 E=41.9 4 0=17 E=11.09 53 Marginal Totals 68 18 Grand Total 86 E values are calculated by multiplying marginal totals and then dividing by the grand total. Cell 1 33x68/86 = 26.09
The aim of this study is to see if the verbal label underneath each picture affects the participants recorded image and to see whether the Whorfian hypothesis is still present.
Index Page Abstract 3 Introduction 4-5 Aim, hypotheses 5 Method; Design, variables, target 6-7 -population and sampling method Apparatus and material 8 Procedure 8-10 Ethical considerations 10 Results 11-13 Discussion 14-15 Conclusion 15 References 16 Appendix index 17 Abstract A study was conducted with the aim of exploring memory by testing the effect of verbal label on the reproduction of abstract figures. Research that has already been carried out to which is similar to this experiment is the study of Carmichael, Hogan and Walter in 1932. The aim of this study is to see if the verbal label underneath each picture affects the participants recorded image and to see whether the Whorfian hypothesis is still present. The study was carried out in a classroom. The participants were selected by
Psychology experiment I am investigating Chunking and the effect it has on the Short Term Memory
Introduction * Background Research I am investigating Chunking and the effect it has on the Short Term Memory. Chunking is where individual letters represent individual pieces of information and each of the letter's fills a slot. The letters composing a word are chunked into one unit, and each unit fills one slot. Miller discovered the magic number seven and a model of memory where 7 + 2 units of information (regardless of the type of data) can be simultaneously held. Miller and Selfridge did an experiment that is similar to mine. They gave participants 'sentences' in varying lengths that resembled (or approx. to) true English to different degrees and asked them to recall the words in their correct order. The closer the sentence was to approx. English the better it was recalled. This suggests that knowledge of semantic and grammatical structure is used to aid recall from the STM. This is similar to my investigation except that I'm using grouped and ungrouped letters instead of sentences. * Rationale The main focus of my research is to find out whether the capacity of the STM can be improved by using chunking. My research is an adaptation of a study by Miller and Selfridge, in their study they gave participants sentences of varying lengths, where I've used grouped and ungrouped letters instead of sentences. * Aim My aim is to find out whether chunking can help
An investigation to identify whether there is a difference in the time taken to read colour words written in different colour inks than to read neutral words written in varying ink colours
An investigation to identify whether there is a difference in the time taken to read colour words written in different colour inks than to read neutral words written in varying ink colours Background Information If a central cognitive component of a task has been practised many times, it requires very little, if any thought to carry the task and it is also difficult to stop performing the task. Therefore, performing the task is said to have become automatic. A classic example of automatic processing has been studied in the Stroop effect which was first demonstrated by J.Ridley Stroop. In this type of experiment, participants have to read aloud the colour of the ink in which words are written. The word can be a neutral word where the colour of the ink in which it is written is unrelated to its meaning (eg 'window' written in blue ink) or, the word can be a colour word. If it is a colour word, the ink in which it is printed can be that ink colour or another ink colour. Aim The aim of this investigation is to find out whether there is a significant difference in the time taken to read colour words written in different colour inks than to read neutral words written in varying ink colours. For example, if the word 'green' written in red ink takes longer to read than then the word 'window' written in blue ink. Hypothesis Having carried out this research into automatic
An investigation to see the effect of chunking on short term memory recall.
An investigation to see the effect of chunking on short term memory recall Contents Introduction Background Research Rationale Aims Hypothesis including Null Hypothesis Method & Design Variables Participants Apparatus Procedure Controls Results Summary Table Summary Table commentary Descriptive Statistics Table Descriptive Statistics commentary Relationship of results to hypotheses Discussion Validity Suggestions for improved validity Reliability Improving reliability Implications of study Generalisation of findings Applications to real life References Introduction Background Research Cognition is the activity of internal mental processing. This has been the focus of many psychologists in their studies. It involves the way human minds think, recall and perceive information. Cognitive psychologists the empirical studies below, discuss the evolution of chunking. Chunking theory, is a technique, which improves performance of recalling. If this technique actively practised or rehearsed, it will help improve retention for the subject. This is achieved by an increase in the knowledge about patterns concerning the task. These patterns are called chunks. Chunking was first proposed as a model of human memory by a Harvard psychologist called George A. Miller in (1956). Miller's main hypotheses were 'how many digits people could be remember a few
'Compare and contrast the ethical issues raised by Milgram's experiments on obedience and Zimbardo's prison experiment'.
Tom Fairfield 'Compare and contrast the ethical issues raised by Milgram's experiments on obedience and Zimbardo's prison experiment' The Zimbardo experiment took place in the summer of 1971 in Stanford University, California, and is one of the most famous contemporary social-psychological experiments. It was presided over by Philip Zimbardo and involved a group of eighteen students, nine of whom were assigned the role of prison warders and the remaining nine as prisoners. The basement of the university was turned in to a prison complete with recording surveillance equipment. The experiment was originally meant to last two weeks but was halted prematurely after six days. Zimbardo had become increasingly concerned by the behaviour of both prisoners and wardens, one of the volunteer prisoners describing the guards as 'Nazis'. Stanley Milgram's study on the conflict between obedience and personal conscience took place in 1965 and was equally controversial. The experiment was 'officially' about learning and memory. Volunteers were assigned the role of 'teacher' delivering electric shocks to 'learners' under the premise that they were exploring the effects of punishment on learning behaviour. The 'learners' unbeknown to the 'teachers' were actors. The 'teachers' were asked to administer electric shocks of increasing intensity as 'learners' gave incorrect answers to questions.
An experiment into the stroop effect
AN EXPERIMENT INTO THE STROOP EFFECT INDEX Abstract The aim of my research was to study automatic processes by replicating the previously carried out Stroop effect. The participants, 20 Richmond College students (10 boys and 10 girls) chosen by an opportunistic sample were taken into a quiet room separately, were presented with 6 lists of words, out of which 3 were congruent and the other 3 incongruent and the time taken for each participant to name the colour that the words were written in was measured and recorded. From this repeated measures design, the results were that participants took a considerably longer to name the colour in the incongruent words than the congruent words. This corresponded to earlier research carried out by Stroop and the results were highly significant to a 5% significance level and a critical value of 60. In conclusion, it can be said that the powerfully autonomic nature of reading words, as it is such a well-learned automatic activity does interfere with other tasks. INTRODUCTION Attention is a system, which allows us to select and process certain significant incoming information. Selective attention refers to the ability to focus on one task at a time whilst excluding any eternal stimuli, which may be distracting. Whereas divided attention refers to the ability to divide ones attention between two or more tasks. If one of these tasks becomes
Outline and Evaluate two explanations of human altruism.
Outline and Evaluate two explanations of human altruism. (24 marks) The first explanation of human altruism is the empathy altruism hypothesis carried out by Batson. He suggested that empathy involves feeling an emotional response that is consistent with another person's emotional state, and acting upon this feeling selflessly. He believe that witnessing someone in need will create empathetic concern for them therefore motivating the helper to attempt to alleviate the distress of the other person. Batson hypothesis suggests that some people are more empathetic than others and this is the reason why some people display altruism and others do not. Batson argues that the ability to take someone else's perspective depends on three different aspects: that the observer has had a similar experience, so have a deeper understanding of how the person in distress feels. The observer is attached to the victim for instance they are a family member or friend. Or the observer may be instructed by others who imagine what it must be like to be in the needy situation. Research for this hypothesis has been carried out by Batson himself, who firstly gave a collection of people a placebo drug which he claimed fixed the participants moods. He found that despite this belief, those who had earlier tested high in empathy, were more likely to take the place of 'Elaine' in empathy. Who was a
Advantages and Disadvantages of research methods.
Advantages and Disadvantages of research methods Laboratory experiments, the features of this research method is that the IV is usually manipulated to cause an effect on the DV, advantages of laboratory experiments is that variables can be controlled easily, the experiment is taken place in a highly controlled environment, choice of participants could be random. With laboratory experiments they can be replicated easily, they also establish a cause and effect, but the disadvantages are that they are low in ecological validity; they are set in artificial environments so therefore effected by mundane realism. The opposing experiment is field; this is set in a natural setting, either familiar surroundings, field experiments are similar to laboratory experiments as they involve control of IV, the use of participants and surroundings, field experiments can also be replicated. Example of Field experiment Abernethy(1940) showed that students performed better if they were tested in the same room where they were taught and tested by the same person. The context same room, same teacher must have been a recall trigger. The main advantage of laboratory experiments is that it is easier to control confounding variables; also another advantage of laboratory is that they can collect a large amount of data that is detailed. On the other hand advantages of field experiments is that
What role do workplace stressors play in our everyday lives?
Psychology Homework: Week 6 What role do workplace stressors play in our everyday lives? A workplace stressor is any feature of the workplace that creates stress. This can affect paid workers, volunteers, students or housewives and anyone in general who works. The causes of workplace stress could include job insecurity, organisational changes, over-working, under-utilisation, de-skilling, and uncomfortable or potentially dangerous working conditions. In our everyday lives, workplace stressors such as the fear of losing a job, punitive management, personal conflicts and lack of control over a persons role can all place pressure on the individual, and depending on how different people perceive these stressors can lead to stress. Next, workplace stressors such as shift work meaning having to adjust a persons sleep patterns, routines and the such like, can result in considerable stress, and has been associated with major industrial accidents. Czeisler et al (1982) found that shift work amongst manual workers in an industrial setting in Utah, USA, correlated with raised accident rates, absenteeism and chronic feelings of ill health. Role conflict is when the demands of the workplace are in direct conflict with the demands or needs of the individual. This causes great stress, as it is an ambient stressor, meaning it is always present in the mind of the individual. However we